PST fight heads to court

The court has no business wading into a fight over a contested increase to the PST, a lawyer for the provincial government told a judge Wednesday.

“There is no basis for the court to interfere with a key component of a government budget,” NDP lawyer Jonathan Kroft told Justice Ken Hanssen. “The right of a provincial government to manage the public purse is a core government power.”

Provincial Progressive Conservatives allege the NDP violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms when, in July 2013, it increased the PST from 7% to 8% without first holding a referendum, a requirement of balanced budget legislation introduced by the Filmon government in 1995.

“You have to wonder what they were thinking and why they did what they did,” said PC lawyer Robert Tapper. “Was it arrogance? Was it that they had no respect at all for the referendum requirements?”

After more than a half-day of arguments, Hanssen reserved his decision on the matter and did not indicate when he will have one.

The hearing was broadcast live over the Internet and for television and radio as part of an ongoing “cameras in the courtroom” pilot project.

Last December, the majority NDP passed Bill 20, formally eliminating the referendum requirement and entrenching the tax hike the province had already been collecting for five months.

Tapper argued the NDP “thumbed its nose” at Manitobans and robbed them of their right to vote on the tax increase.

“The right to vote is an essential component of democracy,” Tapper said. “Once a referendum is created by statute, it is a clear indication ... the government wants people involved.”

The legislature should have had a vote on the referendum issue alone, Tapper said, freeing MLAs to “vote their conscience.”

“That’s what democracy is all about,” he said.

The Tories “are arguing what is effectively a point of procedure,” Kroft countered. Tories “aren’t arguing the government couldn’t do what it did, but that there should have been two pieces of paper instead of one,” he said.

The NDP government has said the new revenue will be put towards infrastructure.

The government, as it does its work, can’t be shackled forever by the laws of previous administrations, Kroft said.

“We can’t bind them and we can’t tie their hands,” he said.

THE TAX LIFE

A look at the ongoing history of the PST hike

• September 2011: Premier Greg Selinger dismisses a suggestion he intends to raise the PST from 7% to 8%.

• April 16, 2013: The provincial budget is released, showing the NDP intends to raise the PST. It was said to raise $198 million in the fiscal year.

• April 17, 2013: Opposition Leader Brian Pallister goes on record to say the Conservatives will rescind the PST if elected into office.